


Christmas Party

by DeckofDragons



Series: 12 Days of Christmas 2019 [12]
Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: 12 Days of Christmas, Alien Spy, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Fluff, Gen, Gift Giving, Glitter Bombs, M/M, My AU, Space AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:47:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21951682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: Scout hosts the team Christmas party.
Relationships: Miss Pauling & Scout (Team Fortress 2), Scout & Everyone else on the team too, Scout & Spy (Team Fortress 2), Scout/Sniper (Team Fortress 2)
Series: 12 Days of Christmas 2019 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1570246
Kudos: 38





	Christmas Party

Scout was pleased to learn that Christmas was much more of a universal holiday; everyone on the team was familiar with it. Meaning operation Christmas party and gift exchange was ago.

Just like with Halloween, Scout volunteered to be in charge of the party. Back home, he never would’ve dreamed of taking on such a role, but here he was really the only one suited for it as well as the only one who wanted a party bad enough to put up with being the one to organize it. Everything his mother had taught him about throwing a good party was finally being put to good use.

He ran into his first problem when upon going to town to get decorations, he learned that the lizard-aliens did not celebrate any winter holiday – could it still be called that when it wasn’t really winter here? They didn’t even seem to have a season that could be classified as winter – and thus did not sell decorations for such. There were also no pine trees _anywhere_ to serve as Christmas trees. None of which was actually surprising when given any real thought.

“All right,” he said as he turned to Pyro and Engie, the two people who’d volunteered to help him with decorations – Demo and Spy had come to town with them too but Demo had gone off to drink and Spy had vanished shortly after they’d arrived to do who knows what. “We’ll have to improvise on the decorations and find something else to be the Christmas tree. I know a little origami so I could probably make some swan ornaments and if we can get some stuff, like cardboard or something similar shaped the right way, we could paint them to look ornaments and other Christmassy things. But you guys got any ideas?”

“I could probably make a few strings of lights,” Engie offered. “All I’d really need is some coloured glass for the bulbs, everything else I probably got at my workshop on the ship.”

“We could make a fake tree out of metal,” Pyro offered next. “Or we could just use one of the plants around here and then burn it when we’re done.”

“Hmm, let’s go with the first thing,” Scout replied. The only plants of substantial size he’d seen on this planet so far were the purple ones and not only were they ugly he didn’t trust them after Medic and Pyro’s experiment with burning them even if that was a long while a go now. “So, I guess let’s just get some basic art supplies and then maybe some red and green cloth that we can cut up and hang like tinsel kind of like we did for Halloween.”

“Sounds good,” Engie said as Pyro gave a thumbs up in agreement.

With the three of them working together, it wasn’t long before they had everything. Pyro helped making ornaments out of paper and cardboard, Scout had taught him how to make origami swans – the only thing he remembered how to make. So they had a quite a few paper swans painted in Christmas colours and themes to hang up on the tree alongside the pieces of cardboard cut and painted to resemble bulb ornaments. The tree itself was made of pieces of straight narrow scrap metal wielded together and spray painted green with a metal star on top, spray painted gold. As a whole it looked pretty odd but still very much like a Christmas tree especially with how well Engie’s special made string of multi-coloured lights turned out.

The rest of the decorations were slightly less good. The ‘tinsel’ barely resembled such. And the papier-mâché wreath Scout had made looked more like a bumpy green doughnut with red and yellow poke dots than a wreath. But whatever, they were limited in what they could do and they’d done their best. The decorations weren’t the most important thing anyway, the gifts and party itself was.

Which was where Scout’s second problem came from; what gifts was he going to get for everyone. He considered them all his friends – even Medic despite their rocky start and Scout’s continued distrust of him in anything involving medical stuff and Spy despite Spy’s standoffishness towards him, less than it had ever been but still there, – so he had to get them all something. And… he wanted to get Sniper something special because… yeah.

He nabbed the team car for a solo trip to town to visit the shopping center in town. Half of it was outside in the desert sand with stalls and lizard-aliens loudly hawking their wares to passersby, not too dissimilar to outdoor shopping centers he was familiar with from back home. The other half was underground though in what seemed to be a cave carved out of the same stone that the buildings were all made out of. It sort of reminded Scout of a mall – though much more cramped and smelling very much of alien reptiles – with how it looped back around on itself. There was even a food court that Scout didn’t dare eat anything at.

Scout hadn’t spent much time here before despite how long they’d been on this planet so he got lost more than once as he wondered around looking for gift ideas. There were some gifts that were obvious, a bottle of nice rum – the alien equivalent of such as far as Scout could tell – for Demo, a fancy lighter for Pyro, a little robot toy for Engie. Upon finding a shop that sold glitter – it was apparently a universe wide phenomenon, infecting everyone everywhere – he got the stuff to make two glitter bombs, one for Spy and one for Medic because honestly, they deserved it. He’d get them something real too though, he wasn’t _that_ much of a jerk. He might’ve gotten the supplies to make one for Pyro too but a) he might’ve enjoyed being showered in glitter, destroying the purpose of the prank and b) on the off chance he didn’t, he wasn’t the kind of person Scout wanted to make angry.

Haggling was expected but difficult because Scout’s grasp of their sign language wasn’t the best and some of them didn’t even know it. Sometimes he had to resort to communicating via pointing, gesturing, and using fingers to count out an offered price. It was a lot of work and exhausting but he somehow managed despite everything. And in the process his grasp of the language got a bit better so win, win.

He saved getting Sniper’s gift for last. It was the most important and therefore the hardest. Should he get a gift that made his crush on Sniper clear and thus use it to finally make a proper move on him? But… should he ever even make a proper move? They were coworkers, weren’t there rules about dating coworkers? And… Sniper probably didn’t even like him back, did he? Making a move might ruin everything Scout had slowly built with him and make everything awkward. So maybe Scout wasn’t ready to give _that_ kind of gift and risk that. But it still had to be a good gift. What though?

The thing Sniper liked the best was his job: sniping. But Scout had gotten him to discuss other interests a few times. Animals was one but not an option as a gift because pets as gifts wasn’t a great idea even if they were alien pets. Camping was another but Scout didn’t know the first _thing_ about camping so what would he even _get_ Sniper for that? That didn’t leave him with many options.

Maybe a stuffed animal would do? But would that be too flirty? … And so far, if any store or stall sold stuffed animals, Scout hadn’t seen it and he’d been around the whole shopping center, underground and above ground, at least twice now. And he didn’t really have time to look specifically for that, he had to get back to base soon, he’d already been gone for almost three hours now. Meaning he had to settle for something soon.

With a grimace, he picked up his walking pace. He had to find something good soon, he just _had_ to.

A bit more than an hour later, he finally returned to base. Spy appeared before him as he stepped out of the car.

“Where’d you go?” he asked as if it were any of his business.

“Christmas shopping,” Scout answered as he slammed the car door shut. He pulled all his shopping bags close to make sure Spy couldn’t peek into them without making his intent to do so obvious. “I got you something too, don’t worry.”

“Oh.” Spy’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “What is it?”

Scout couldn’t help a mischievous smile coming to his face. “You’ll have to wait and see. And don’t you _dare_ sneak into my room to try peek before Christmas.” If anyone would do that, it’d be Spy. “I’m going wrap them right away _and_ I’m going to boobytrap the hiding spot so don’t even try it.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Spy said, speaking just a bit too fast; he’d for sure been thinking about it. “I don’t care anyway.” He made a dismissive hand gesture towards Scout before vanishing.

The big day was finally here and Scout couldn’t be more excited. Especially since, Christmas was _so_ much of a recognized holiday that the Administrator gave them a whole two weeks off for it. Miss Pauling even showed up for the party, meaning Scout’s party was basically already as success.

There was food and drink on one table. Most of the ‘food’ was sweets: cupcakes, a whole cheesecake, and lots of gingerbread in the form of gingerbread men as well as a lopsided house, all of which was made by Heavy and Pyro. Unfortunately, they’d run out of normal alcohol, leaving them with only the alien stuff meaning Scout had to stick to plain old water from the ship’s purification system like some kind of boring nerd. He could’ve let Demo bring a jug of his homebrewed moonshine too but… he’d tried it once and it was _nasty_. So by the end of the night he was probably going to be the only one sober other than Pyro and probably Spy – Spy seemed to avoid the alien alcohol too for some reason. Which meant he should probably hand out the gifts he’d got for everyone before the party dragged on too long.

He went to Demo and Soldier, drinking playing cards together first.

“Oh,” Demo said as Scout handed him his gift and then Solider his. “Laddie, you didn’t have to. Most people in our line of work will throw a party but… not always do the gift thing.”

“I know,” Scout replied. “I ain’t that kind guy though. I love Christmas and you guys put me in charge of this whole party so… I had to. I don’t except anything in return though, don’t worry.” He’d just wanted to get his new friends stuff.

“Don’t complain maggot,” Soldier said. “Just say ‘thank you’ and open your gift.” He was already following that advice, pulling the small pet sweater that would _hopefully_ fit Lt. Bites out of the box. He gasped at the sight of it. “Is this what I think it is?” he asked, looking back up at Scout.

“Uh… depends on what you think it is. But I thought you might like to put it on your raccoon.” Everyone had long since given up trying to convince Soldier that Lt. Bites _wasn’t_ a raccoon.

“I will go put it on her immediately.” Soldier stood up and rushed out of the room. He’d probably return with her on his shoulder soon which wasn’t great, she still liked to hiss at people who weren’t Soldier. But whatever, she rarely bit anyone anymore despite her name so it would probably be fine.”

“Oh wow,” Demo said, drawing Scout’s gaze back to him. He’d too opened his gift and pulled out the bottle, undisguised joy on his face. “This is the _good_ stuff, for this planet anyway, _thanks_.”

“You’re welcome.” So far everything was turning out fantastic.

Next, he went to Pauling and Heavy, chatting in a corner while enjoying some gingerbread and alcohol. Just like Demo, they were both a bit surprised to be receiving a gift from him. But…

“Is very nice, thank you,” Heavy said upon pulling out the set of kitchen knives Scout had gotten for him because he was the person on the team who cooked the most.

For Pauling he’d gotten a toy space ship because he really did not know what else to get her. He didn’t know her as well as he knew everyone else on the team due to how busy she was always was. She seemed pleased with it though, smiling as she pulled it out of its little box. “Thank you.”

After chatting with them for a bit longer, he moved onto to Spy – he couldn’t hold back his anticipation for the glitter bomb much longer – and Engie. Everyone seemed to be hanging out in pairs right now which was just fine with him, it made the whole gift giving thing a tad easier.

“Hey guys,” he said as he sidled up to them, making sure to be closer to Engie than Spy. “Merry Christmas!” He pulled out the gifts labelled for them and handed them over.

“Uh… wasn’t expecting it but thanks,” Engie said.

“Yes, I suppose a thanks is in order,” Spy said before going straight to unwrapping his. Wrapping paper gone, it was time to lift the lid and… boom, the glitter bomb went off, spraying glitter everywhere, especially on Spy.

It was hilarious. The glare he turned on Scout once it was over made it impossible _not_ to laugh. Even Engie chuckled.

“I shouldn’t be surprised,” Spy said, voice dripping with venom.

Scout rained in his laughter enough to answer. “There’s a real gift in there too, under all the glitter.”

Still glaring daggers at Scout, Spy upended the box into his hand. “A knife,” he said once enough of the remaining glitter fell away to reveal it. “Great. … You have any idea how hard this stuff is to clean up?”

“Well uh…”

“I need a shower,” Spy interrupted before vanishing. But, the glitter was still visible, clinging to him and making him not very invisible at all. It was just too good; another burst of laughter bubbled up in Scout.

“He kept the knife with him though,” Engie said once Spy was gone. “So at least he likes that part of the gift… I think. That maybe wasn’t a great idea though, he’s going to mad now.”

“Whatever.” Scout wasn’t worried about that “It’s his own fault for being a jerk. But like, open your gift now, it doesn’t have any glitter in it because I wouldn’t do that to you.”

Engie grunted in response as he finished unwrapping his present. “Ah cute,” he said in response to the little robot. “Thanks.”

“You’re very welcome,” Scout replied before turning to face everyone else as they gathered to investigate the commotion. Pyro went straight to playing in the glitter on the floor, crouching down to run his gloved hand through it. Yep, not getting him a glitter bomb had been a good idea.

“Did you really have to set off a glitter bomb in here?” Pauling asked, giving him a slight frown.

“I’ll clean it up, I promise.” Scout would never dream of doing otherwise. Glitter bombs being a favourite prank of his and his bros, he had a good amount of experience in cleaning up the after math of them on a variety of different surfaces.

But while everyone else was gathered here, he reached into his bag to pull out Pyro and Medic’s gifts. He quickly handed them to their recipients before retreating. While he trusted Spy not to hurt him for the prank – as harsh as his words could be sometimes, he’d never once actually done anything to Scout – he wasn’t so sure about Medic and he didn’t want to risk anything. Under the glitter bomb in Medic’s gift was a bag of treats for his dragons but that probably wouldn’t earn him much forgiveness so it was best to get out and hide for it a bit.

On his way, he hooked an arm through Sniper’s – he’d been on the fringe of the group – pulling him with him. Sniper just sort of let him, not saying anything even when they exited the room and Scout brought him outside and around back instead.

“Let me guess,” Sniper said when Scout finally pulled them to a stop when they were behind the building. “You put a glitter bomb in Medic’s gift too and you’re afraid of him so you ran away before he could open it?”

“Bingo,” Scout replied. “But it’s not that I’m afraid,” it _kind_ of was though but that made him sound weak, “it’s more, I don’t want to give him a possible reason to try to dissect me again.”

Sniper raised an eyebrow. “’Again’?”

“Eh, it’s a long story, don’t worry about it.” Scout didn’t want to talk about it and that was a while ago now so who would even believe him? Especially since the scars were mostly faded. “Anyway, I brought you out here with me because I still need give you your gift.” And because he wanted some alone time with him but he couldn’t admit to that.

He reached into his bag one last time to pull out the final gift and handed it to Sniper. Who accepted after a second or two of staring it uncomfortably with a slight grimace.

“I uh… didn’t get you anything,” he said.

“It’s fine,” Scout assured him. “I didn’t expect anyone would. I just did it because I wanted to. Open it though, I need to know if you like it. And uh I promise it’s not glitter.”

“That uh… kinda makes me worry that it might be glitter. But…” He trailed off with a shrug before removing the wrapping paper. He as bit more cautious with lifting giftbox’s lid, holding a bit far away from his body. When it became obvious that nothing bad was going to happen though, he pulled it close again to look inside and pull out the gift.

“Oh,” he said, holding it up to the light. “It’s nice.”

“You really think so?” Scout had looked and looked for something good before coming upon that badass tooth necklace. He had no idea what animal the teeth came from, only that they were large, pointed, and looked cool. Conjuring up an image of Sniper wearing it wasn’t hard either, it fit his general aesthetic.

“Yeah,” Sniper said. “I always wanted a shark tooth necklace. Though I suppose these ain’t from a shark, not the right shape and on an alien planet.” He briefly removed his hat to slip it on over his head. “Thanks though, I like it.”

“Awesome.” Scout almost had to hold back a sigh of relief. He’d been more nervous about this than he’d thought. But it had gone well, heck everything had gone well. And as a cherry on top, to avoid Medic’s wrath for a bit, he could get away with spending an hour or two alone with Sniper out here before going back inside to enjoy the rest of the party.


End file.
